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CM . . . .
Volume VI Number 11 . . . . February 4, 2000
More than sixteen years have passed since the initial publication of In
Search of April Raintree. Because it has been used as teaching text in
junior and senior high schools and for university-level undergraduate and
graduate courses in literature, women's studies, and Native studies, the
story is well known. Due to their parents' alcohol abuse, Cheryl and April
Raintree, two Metis sisters growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, are
separated from each other and their family. Life in a variety of foster
homes is typified by neglect, ill treatment, and shame at their Native
heritage. Throughout much of the narrative, Cheryl maintains pride in her
ancestry, but early on, April decides to deny her Native self as much as
is possible. Over the years, distance develops between the two sisters.
April's marriage to a wealthy white man offers a glamorous life in Toronto
and financial comfort but emotional impoverishment. Divorcing her husband
brings April temporary freedom and the opportunity to repair the breach
which has developed between her and Cheryl. But Cheryl's pride has failed
to sustain her; now a prostitute and alcoholic, she is not the sister
April remembered. And, in a central and horrific accident of mistaken
identity, April is confused with Cheryl and is brutally raped by a gang of
young white men. She survives, but Cheryl does not, and the book ends with
April's commitment to raise Cheryl's son with the pride and stability her
sister could not provide. April's search for self is over, and her life
begins anew.
The ten essays which follow the re-edited text cover a variety of issues:
the nature of identity as a Native person in a largely racist white
culture; April's story as a document of cultural displacement from one's
heritage; the legacy of cycles of abuse, violence, and denial of human
rights; the story as the lived experience of foster care, alcohol abuse,
family violence, and suicide; history, as written by white historians and
as told by First Nations tradition; censorship and the revision of the
original text into April Raintree; and the book's place in Canadian
Aboriginal literature. As well, Beatrice Culleton Mosionier contributes a
short essay which details some personal family history and the story's
raison d'etre. With the exception of Mosionier, all of the contributors
are academics, most with interests in gender studies and/or native
studies. As a result, the essays are definitely high-level discourse and
are intended for an audience with more than average knowledge of textual
reading. At the same time, the serious attention these critical essays pay
to the book validates its importance as a central text in Native
literature. The book certainly deserves a place in public and academic
libraries, as well as in high school collections where the book is studied
in upper grades.
Recommended.
Joanne Peters is the teacher-librarian at Kelvin High School in Winnipeg, MB.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice
is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without
permission.
Published by
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - February 4, 2000.
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